About us

Portraits for Posterity is an independent project begun in late 2007 by Jacki Reason and Jan Marsh in collaboration with photographer Matt Writtle. In close liaison with London’s survivor community, notably Roman Halter, thirty portraits were produced during 2008 and first exhibited at London’s City Hall (January-February 2009). A second showing took place at North London Collegiate School (March-May 2009). During 2010, more portraits of Holocaust survivors are being produced and further exhibitions are being planned.

Each portrait is accompanied by a short biography drawn from the sitter’s own words and includes a message for the 21st century.

Donations to Portraits for Posterity are welcome and indeed essential. These funds enable the urgent work of expanding the exhibit to continue. If you would like to contribute, please email us at: info@portraitsforposterity.com

Photographer: Matt Writtle

Matt Writtle is a London-based photographer with 17 years’ experience.

He has worked for most of the national newspaper groups and the Press Association news agency. Current clients include The Times, Sunday Times and London Evening Standard, along with a number of commercial, charitable and PR clients. Matt is also represented by eyevine and Alamy photographic libraries.

His assignments include news photography on the Asian tsumani, Darfur and the death of Princess Diana and numerous photo essays on subjects including Muslims in Britain, AIDS orphans in Siberia, and Bonded Child Labour in India as well as daily diary portraiture and features.

Matt began his career at the Shropshire Star in 1992 moving on to leading newspapers in both Australia and Hong Kong. He returned to London in 2003.

Jacki Reason is an editor and writer, working in the charity and public sectors. She is former head of Information and Publications at the London Voluntary Service Council and former consultant publications manager for the Community Development Foundation and the Development Trusts Association. She has written carers’ information packs for local authorities, is co-author of Voluntary but not Amateur: a guide to the law for voluntary and community organisations, and editor of Age Concern London’s London Age and sculptor Ursula Hanes’ autobiography, Nine Lives.

Jan Marsh is a writer and curator. She has written books on poets Edward Thomas and Christina Rossetti, on women in English country houses and as members of the Bloomsbury group, on Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Morris, and on the sculptor Fiore de Henriquez. Exhibitions include Elizabeth Siddal, Pre-Raphaelite Women Artists and Black Victorians 1800-1900. She currently works in the nineteenth-century department of the National Portrait Gallery.

Advisor: Marc Lopatin

Marc is a former business journalist now working as a communications consultant in the energy sector.